Henry Tukombe is still Education Ministry Permanent Secretary

The Ministry of General Education has refuted media reports that its Permanent Secretary Henry Tukombe has been suspended.

Ministry Spokesperson Nondo Chilonga says in the statement to ZANIS today that Mr. Tukombe is still working for the Ministry and is even out of the country on official duties.

Ms. Chilonga noted that the ministry is also aware of the contents of the report of the auditor general on the accounts for the year 2016 and will be responding as appropriate within the established channel.

She explained that the ministry’s management team has also made it clear that social media will not at any time serve as its official communication model and that in the future they may not strain themselves to respond to any social media related information.

Meanwhile, a senior government official in Rufunsa has called for the localization of teacher’s selection if districts and provinces are to maintain quality and dedicated teachers who are ready to deliver in the education sector.

District Commissioner, Judith Chama says her office is not happy with the way the selection of teachers was done especially for Rufunsa and called on the unions to intervene in such issues if quality education is to be enhanced in rural areas.

ZANIS reports that the commissioner made the remarks yesterday during the handover of building materials by Zambia National Teachers Union (ZNUT), towards the construction of the district education board secretary (DEBS) office in Rufunsa.

She said the newly created district of Rufunsa has a number of schools and most of these are manned by trained teachers who are not on payroll and are working on voluntary basis.

Mrs. Chama said it was disappointing that out of the 408 applicants who are currently working as volunteers, and submitted their application letters through the DEBS office, only seven were picked out of the 21 that have been selected for the district.

Mrs. Chama appealed for the localization of the selections in the Ministry of Education so that people who are working on voluntary basis are given first priority when it comes to employment.

And ZNUT officials said the union will continue advocating for the localization of the selection of teachers as this will enable districts have teachers who are dedicated and committed to work as they already know the challenges in the areas.

Director Organization, Samuel Nyirenda and Public Relations Officer, Joe Kasaka said the Union has been equally concerned at the selection of teachers when it comes to recruitment as most of the people picked to serve in some areas do not stay there hence depriving the children access to education.

Rufunsa District which has 24 primary schools and seven secondary schools has been given 21 teachers from the recent selection.

6 COMMENTS

This is the democracy Amos Chanda is talking about. You can steal as much as you want as long as your accusers cannot provide evidence you can keep working. No one gets fired for corruption in a democracy because those that accuse others have also stolen copper. Democracy made by PF.

I was shocked when I heard this guy was suspended. That can’t and will never happen in PF. In PF, corruption is glorified. Only those perceived to be rivals or threats to PF’s continued stay in power can be suspended or retired in “something” interest.

And the funny thing is that you find a commoner stealing a K100 is sent to jail, even for a month but big/worse criminals are just made to pay back. This is INJUSTICE of the worst order. We cannot progress as a nation

In countries were integrity is taken serious this man would have come back home from duty and stepped down. Why would he continue being there when his being called a thief here for stealing our money? Also, the ministry is not the one to respond to the AG report on this man why would they be “responding as appropriate within the established channel”?. I thought integrity would be easy to swallow since his got a big neck!

Yes I agree. In progressive countries when mere allegations are leveled against a senior government official, they immediately resign but here it’s all nonsense as someone continues in office. Business as usual.